Where You Spend Your Dollars Matters

Consumers See Payoff in Consumer Activism

Perhaps it’s must me, but I believe that employers should provide healthcare insurance to full-time employees. Perhaps this attitude of mine comes from my employment history of white-collar office jobs, and that I don’t know what it’s like for working people in service industries such as restaurants and hotels. Is it normal to put in a 40 hour week and not have the option of having health insurance, paid either in full or in part by your employer? After all, doesn’t the guy sitting behind the desk calling the shots get health insurance? Isn’t there strength and bargaining power in numbers?

Darden Restaurants, Inc., found out recently that consumers care about the character and integrity of companies that they patronize. After announcing that they would scale back the hours of many of their full-time employees in order to limit healthcare costs, they saw a bump in business that made them change their tune. Customers and employees bombarded them through social media and their website to voice their disapproval.

Today’s consumer has less money to spend on dinners out. They have fewer dollars to spend on clothing, jewelry and movies. They are selective about where those dollars are spent. Although I don’t spend a lot of money going out to dinner, I do love those garlic cheese biscuits at Red Lobster (a Darden restaurant) and it wasn’t easy for me to turn my back on a favorite restaurant, but I did. I was appalled to hear about their cost-savings efforts on the backs of their lowest paid, most vulnerable employees, and I cut them off my list. Apparently a lot of other consumers did the same thing, because they have lowered their profit outlook for the year and are changing their tune. They are now saying that they find that their restaurants perform better and employee and customer satisfaction is higher where they employ full time hourly employees.

Ya’ think? Of course your employees are happier if they know they won’t be ruined financially because of an illness. This is common sense.

Let’s see if Darden Restaurants, Inc., can recover from the public backlash. In the meantime, let’s continue to consume wisely.

Middle School Wrestler with Cerebral Palsy “Wins” Match

It was a heartwarming video and story on Yahoo!. A coach carries a profoundly physically disabled youth into the wrestling wring and lays him down next to his opponent, who stands with his hand on his hip, watching. To the cheers and encouragement of the coach and the crowd, the match begins with the abled youth crouching next to his opponent, then laying down next to him, and, clearly struggling with the weight, pulls the disabled youth on top of him. The coach blows his whistle and calls the match won. The grin on the face of the disabled youth could melt the polar ice cap (especially now, since it’s been compromised by global warming).
The middle school wrestler who “let” the disabled wrestler win is being hailed as a great sportsman, and to be sure, kids that age are famous for their neediness and selfishness. They are kids, and kids are primarily concerned with their own needs, so he is to be hailed for his selfless act.

My concern is for the other kid. Is it fair to put a profoundly physically disabled child in a position to participate in a sport that they can never really achieve? I mean, the cheers and accolades are heartwarming, but they aren’t real. I think it’s cruel to lead him on in that manner. As cruel as it, the child can’t even walk or sit up, so what is he doing in the wrestling ring? Shouldn’t children be taught to be the best at whatever they are good at, rather than pretending to be good at something?

There are plenty of physically disabled athletes, and they inspire awe from me. I’ve seen athletes without legs whooshing down ski slopes that I wouldn’t dare try out. Watching the athletes compete at the Paralympics this year blew my mind – people achieving things that MOST of us never could. But wrestling when you are too weak to even sit up? I don’t think so.

The article in Yahoo! went on to say that the wrestler with CP was close to his age level intellectually. Why not help him to achieve his intellectual goals instead? Can’t his family help him with something that he can achieve on his own without being placed on a mat?

Maybe I’m just being a Scrooge, but I don’t think so. This past election has shown us that there are plenty of Americans out there that never learned how to lose gracefully; that still operate at the 3rd grade level when things don’t go their way. I don’t think we do our children any favors by being unrealistic about how life works.

http://youtu.be/J-pInwGuhJw

Chris Brown Allows Himself to be Goaded Into Losing His Mind Publicly, Again

This morning I read about Chris Brown deleting his Twitter account after losing his mind publicly, in cyberspace, on comedy writer Jenny Johnson. Some of the headlines bring to mind a big black he-monster attacking a poor defenseless white woman, headlines like “Chris Brown Attacks Female Comedy Writer,” and “Chris Brown Deletes Twitter Account After Vulgar Exchange with Female.”

To be sure, the exchange was nasty and vulgar, but it certainly wasn’t one-sided. She is no innocent bystander. She has been attacking him for years (since the Rihanna incident), and is pretty vulgar herself, spending her time attacking “celebrities.” Whatever works for you, I guess. But when you go online and write mean things about an emotionally immature person, knowing that he has a short fuse, don’t play victim when he explodes. It was, in my opinion, a fair fight. Ultimately, she won, because she got him to explode, but please. She is nobody’s victim here.

 

The exchange (with our commentary in italics):

 

@JennyJohnsonHi5: I know! Being a worthless piece of shit can really age a person. RT @chrisbrown: I look old as fuck! I’m only 23…

@chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: I know! Being a worthless piece of shit can really age a person. :take them teeth out when u Sucking (notice the capitalization of “Sucking,” that’s an important word for him!) my dick HOE.

@JennyJohnsonHi5: It’s “HO” not “HOE” you ignorant fuck. (that’s right – if you are going to use slang, make sure you use it correctly.) RT @chrisbrown: take them teeth out when u Sucking my dick HOE.

@Chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: I should fart while ur giving me top. “Seize the day” #CarpeDiem (teenage boy humor…)

@JennyJohnsonHi5: Your mom must be so proud of you. RT (Chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: I should fart while ur giving me top. (Wow, now she’s really hitting below the belt, bringing his Mama into it..)

@chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: see..I don’t even have to tell u what u already know. Thanks HO! #bushpig (well, at least he cleaned up his slang.)

@JennyJohnsonHi5: http://t.co/WpuEMPOP #SuckIt RT @chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: see..I don’t even have to tell u what u already know. Thanks HO! #bushpig

@chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: mom says hello…She told me not to shart in ur mouth, wanted me to shit right on the retina, …#pinkeye (Wow! He’s really ratcheting up the playground fight here!)

@JennyJohnsonHi5: YOU FLIRT!!! RT @chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5 mom says hello… She told me not to shart in ur mouth, wanted me to shit right on the retina,

@chrisbrown: Let me leave this bitch alone… It’s good to know my worth by listening to a bitch that is worthless! #iwin #bushpigswag (now, that’s confidence!)

@JennyJohnsonHi5: Okay. I’m done. All I got from that exchange with Chris Brown is that he wants to shit and fart on me.

Happy Independence Day, and Everything Stays the Same!

Happy Independence Day. I haven't quite worked out what this day means to me personally, other than being an American Citizen as opposed to some other citizen.

Here in Denver, we have a virtual gumbo of nationalities; not all of them feel the same way about American independence as those of us who have grown up with it. I was reminded of that today when my husband and I went out for dim sum after church this morning. Although there were many non-Chinese people in the crowded restaurant, we were the only African Americans. "Happy 45th of July," server after server pushing steaming carts told us, none of them really able to master English, and me being the only one who really understood what they were saying, because I've gone to the same restaurant for the past 10 years and my husband only goes when I get a severe hankering and drag him along with me.

After dim sum, as is my tradition, I love to go over to the Vietnamese bakery for dessert, which I can never eat just then (after having stuffed myself with dim sum) but is always good in the middle of the night. I love the sweet yellow-bean dessert with the sweet coconut cream topping. And, once again, I was reminded of the social hierarchy of this race-based society of ours, even in such a diverse community as "Vietnam Town" in West Denver. Standing at the counter with my desserts and something else that I picked up (I had no idea what it was - looked like sweetened dried apricots, and I'm an adventurous eater), I stood there for a good 4-5 minutes while the lady behind the counter counted money and spoke rapidly in Vietnamese to the man behind the counter with her. Meanwhile, a white man was in line behind me, looking at the freshly baked bread. Finally, the woman took my money, added up my purchases wrong a couple of times, then getting it right took my $7.50. Thank you!

As I'm heading out the door, I was mildly surprised to hear her come out of her coma and, in her best, high pitched, highly accented voice chirp: "Hello Sir! How may I help you?!?!?"

Okay, so maybe I wasn't surprised at all. After all, even new immigrants know how our social hierarchy works - white men first, black women fall somewhere towards the bottom, who knows, maybe even lower than her newly immigrant self in her eyes. Wow. Well, it won't keep me from patronizing the Vietnamese bakery, but it is a little sad to see other, more recent immigrants bowing, scraping, and generally acting like buffoons, not realizing that it's not going to get them anywhere.

They'll see.

Tea Party Crazies Keep Losing Credibility – Keep up the Good Work!

Yesterday’s appearance of Meghan McCain on the View gave me the tiniest glimmer of hope for our country when she condemned the so-called “Tea Party” agenda. To quote:

"And I think it's why young people are turned off by this movement." And I'm sorry [but] revolutions start with young people. Not with 65-year-old people talking about literacy tests and people who can't say the word 'vote' in English. It's ridiculous."

The fact that the so-called "Tea Party" would invite Sarah Palin to be the keynote speaker and pay her $100K is one clue to the ridiculousness of their agenda, but the $349 entry fee for the convention only puts it out of reach of the average Joe that they claim to represent. If you were fortunate enough (as if!) to attend the banquet and hear Palin, you would have paid $549. $100K for a speaker who never makes a point and reads notes out of her hand like an adolescent! I have another bone to pick with Palin. Rahm Emmanuel should never have used the phrase “f*ckin’ retard” in public, in my humble opinion, but it was in a private setting, and when the drug-addled Rush (perfect name for a blowbag) Limbaugh says it on the airwaves in front of millions, she makes excuses for him, saying he is "using satire." Her hypocrisy is stunning. I do hope she runs for president in 2012 and makes it easy for our candidates.

Finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back for the so-called "Tea Baggers" is their incredibly stupid decision to have Tom Tancredo as opening speaker at their convention. I can’t even speak ill of him any more, because he is so pathetic. The more his handlers allow him out in public to spout hatred, it seems the easier it gets for him and he gets even crazier. I’m embarrassed that he’s from my state. He started out expressing his racism subtlety, but gets worse every time he opens his mouth, to the point where he actually had the audacity to say:

"we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote... People who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House."

Is Tancredo really that ignorant that he doesn’t know the history of so-called literacy tests and how they were used to prevent African Americans from voting? And as a man of Italian descent, is he so clueless as to not know how his own people were discriminated against when they first arrived in this country? Yet two generations or so down the road he thinks it's okay for him to do the same to other immigrants?

Let’s just hope that Meghan McCain and others like her represent the future of the Republican Party, and not the rich codgers who call themselves the “Tea Party.” Perhaps the young people will make a difference in the future of this country.

Some “Players” Should Stick to the Game They Know How to Play

I tried hard to ignore the whole Tiger Woods story for the first few days. I felt that there really wasn’t anything unusual about a dashing young multi-millionaire athlete getting caught cheating on his wife; distasteful as it is to the public palate, it happens all the time. But as the story continues to unfold, it is starting to be so surreal that you can’t help but notice.

Saline enhanced? Gullible? Sleazy? I want YOU!

It just goes to show you that regardless of what you think you may know about someone in the public eye, you really don’t know a damn thing. Carefully crafted “images” are usually just that after all – images. Consider the Tiger Woods that we think we know: wholesome family man, squeaky clean, wonderful relationship with a beautiful wife and adorable children. Now contrast that with the picture that is starting to emerge: a prescription drug abusing, sneaky, lying, egomaniacal womanizer. As a new picture takes shape, I find myself squirming in disbelief. Woman after woman, after woman, keep coming forward, each less “wholesome” than the next. As my disbelief mounts, so does my empathy for his lovely wife (who may have taken a golf club to him). Mr. Wholesome, publicly unveiled, is starting to look like a very sinister character indeed. In fact, in my unprofessional opinion he’s “totally messed up” in the head. This is no minor lapse in judgment; this isn’t him “not being true to his values.” Clearly, his demons come before any values that he may have had, if any. He needs professional help, quick.

All that sexaholism or whatever he suffers from aside, he clearly hasn’t a clue as to how to play a “Player’s” game. As good as he is at golf, he is a rank amateur in the running ladies department. A pitiful pisher.

First of all, he doesn’t need that many women, regardless of how many he thinks he needs. Quality, not quantity. There is only so much of Tiger to go around. Perhaps he took his nickname too literally? Anyway, with as much money as this guy has, he should have used it wisely to buy the loyalty of his paramours. If those women had been getting paid for their services, chances are they would have been more protective of his privacy. Who wants to bite the hand that feed them? Everyone should have had a wonderful place to live, the flashy car of their choice and a tidy “allowance;” had he arranged that then he would have realized that he didn’t need so many. Secondly, he made the ridiculous mistake of letting them believe that they were the “only ones.” Now, instead of one woman scorned he has 10 or so. Okay granted, they were stupid thinking they could expect loyalty from a man who happens to be married to another woman, but who knows what he told them in his bumbling attempt to be a “Player?”

I hope for a positive outcome for Tiger and his family, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work and the situation is probably already irretrievably broken. It will take a woman who is almost a Saint to love a man that much after so much public humiliation and embarrassment, but perhaps Elin loves her husband that much and took her vows as seriously as he didn’t. One lesson I hope he has learned, and that other “Players” should learn from this as well – stick to the game you know.

Hatred in the Hallowed Halls

Let me preface this by stating that I am a fan of Barack Obama's, and that I believe that our current health care system is in dire need of reform. I'm disgusted with sky high premiums for insurance companies who refuse to pay claims when their customers actually get sick (so their executives can get paid exhorbitant bonuses). I'm disgusted by a system that treats illnesses without addressing prevention and healthy lifestyles (perhaps because someone is profiting greatly from illness?). So I was inspired watching Obama's address to Congress last Wednesday, grinning as he said all the right things, perhaps distracted by the constant applause and ovation after ovation, but nevertheless inspired.

My feelings upon hearing the cretin shout out “You Lie!” were mirrored on the mortified, and yet furious face of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Was I looking at a Town Hall meeting, or were these supposed to be elected officials listening to an address given by the President of the United States of America? When did it become okay to be that disrespectful of your colleagues, or the American people? When I learned who the offensive Congressman was and where he was from, sadly, I chalked it up to plain old racism, especially after seeing the picture of him with his face contorted with straight-up hatred that he couldn't be bothered to contain. But then I talked to my sister, who told me to take another look at the photograph and to look at the faces of the Congressmen seated on either side of the infantile Joe Wilson, and when I did I skipped a breath. Again, pure, unadulterated hatred. No, not just an “I disagree with you” look, not a rolling of the eyes, but a look of “Screw you, President Darkie, you MF. I hate you.” No, this is no ordinary political disagreement. It is unrestrained, ugly, disheartening hatred of some so-called human beings against the Leader of the Free World, not for political reasons, but for purely human reasons. It has a name – Racism.

In spite of my Pollyana-ish attitude about life in general and faith in the human spirit, I have concluded that there are people out there who just don't like a Black Man as President, no matter how good a leader, how educated, smart, inspiring, and faithful and loyal to a beautiful family - admirable values for anyone. What else can I conclude? In my lifetime, I have seen reactions to politicians before, but never anything even remotely at this level. I have never seen people who call themselves “Men of God,” e.g. Pastors of churches, tell their sheep-like flocks to pray for rain for a Presidential Address, or worse, admit that they are praying for the death of the President. In my eyes, that ought to be labeled for what it is and punished accordingly – treason. I've not seen irresponsible radio talk show hosts transform “Black Man,” to “Socialist,” tell bald-faced lies on the air and get away with it. I literally threw my hands in the air when I heard about people threatening to keep their children out of school to avoid hearing the Presidential Address to schoolchildren (not a new idea) about the value of an education. How sickening to know that uneducated people are continuing the cycle of stupid with their children; even more so knowing that these people are allowed to vote and procreate.

I take refuge in the knowledge that these people certainly don't represent the majority of the American people. After all, Obama was elected by a clear majority. What does worry me is that people appear to be getting crazier. I can't imagine how anyone thought it was okay to go hear the President speak while packing heat. Why? More importantly, why would such a lunatic be interviewed on a television news program instead of thrown in the slammer face down with a boot to the back of the neck? I mean seriously, the last President spied on citizen's private telephone conversations, and you could have been arrested for just speaking disparagingly about him. Elderly people's cookie swaps were raided. Teenage boys with “Islamic sounding” names were put on terrorist lists that caused them to be stopped at airports. Wars were started under false pretenses that plundered the Treasury. I didn't like any of it. But hatred? C'mon. The former administration included human beings just like the rest of us (with a few aliens mixed in, I'm sure). I feel that we were lucky more damage wasn't done before they left. And to his credit, the former President has kept a low profile since he left (unlike the aliens).

The elected officials who can't contain their hate need to be voted out. They are an embarrassment to themselves, their constituents and to our country. They are supposed to be role models and they are supposed to represent everyone, not just the people who share their skin pigment. I was ecstatic to hear that Joe Wilson's former-marine opponent in the next election was given a $500,000 windfall the next day after Wilson's ridiculous outburst by an enraged public. It made me proud of my country.